After the events of Season 3- An alternative Future
by ITOFT
Summary: What if Stefan left town after Elena died in the accident at the end of Season 3 and didn't know about the vampire blood in her system? I present an alternative future of what happened next...
1. The morning after the Night Before

**After the events of the final episode of Season 3...**

**Part 1- The morning after the accident**

Elena slowly opened her eyes. She had a terrible headache and had to shade her eyes from the sun shining through her window. Wait...it wasn't her window, where was she?

As her mind cleared and she sat up she realised that she was in Damon's bedroom- in his bed. The events of the night before came rushing back to her. The accident. The car had gone over the bridge just as it had last time when her parents died. Oh my god...Matt? After a moment of panic she remembered Stefan rescuing him and swimming up to the top with him. She didn't remember how she had gotten out of the car. All she could remember was closing her eyes as her breathing became shallow and the peace that washed over her in that moment.

As she got out of bed she realised that someone else was in the room looking out of the window...Damon. He turned around as he heard her move and she saw the tears running down his cheeks.

"Damon?" she asked "what's going on? How did I get here? Where's Matt?"

Damon looked at her with what could only be described as a heartbroken look on his face.

"He's fine Elena. Stefan saved HIM."

"What do you mean Stefan saved HIM. He saved me too. I'm right here Damon." She walked over to the window and touched his arm. As she got closer to the window the sun felt too bright and she put her hand to her head as it throbbed.

Damon looked at her with that special look he reserved just for her. Brushing her hair out of her eyes and pulling the curtains to shade her from the sun he said "He didn't save you Elena. You're not fine. I'm so sorry."

"What do you mean?" she asked again. As the realisation hit her with a bang she wrenched the curtains open and let the sun spill in. Her skin felt like it was burning; her head throbbed and above all was a terrible hunger. "Oh my god" she said looking at him bereft "I'm a vampire?"

"You're in transition." Damon told her. "You don't have to be a vampire if you don't want to" he told her, tears once again rolling down his face knowing somewhere deep inside that she might make the choice not to complete the transition; and worse knowing deep inside that the best thing for her would be if she didn't. Then he explained what had happened. Meredith Fell had given her vampire blood to heal her earlier in the night before the crash. Whilst she had told Elena and Jeremy that it was just a concussion it had been much worse and she had used her "special" blood supply to heal her. Elena had died in the accident- Stefan hadn't saved her. She had died with vampire blood in her system.

"Where is he?" She choked out, "Where is Stefan?"

"He's gone Elena." Damon told her. "By the time he got back to you and pulled you out of the lake you had stopped breathing. He tried to resuscitate you but it was too late. The ambulance came and they pronounced you dead and you were taken by the coroner."

"I knew because Alaric was about to pull my heart out and he just dropped to the floor. I knew at that moment that I had lost my best friend and the love of my life." He told her the tears continuing to stream down his face. " I drove straight back and came to say goodbye to you. You were lying there on a slab, the life drained out of you. You were gone. Then Meredith called me to tell me about the vampire blood and I took you away and brought you here."

Elena breathed in deeply as she took in what Damon was telling her. "Where did he go?" Elena asked him still thinking of Stefan.

"I really don't know Elena. Matt said he looked around after they pronounced you dead and he had disappeared."

"He doesn't know?" Elena asked him. "He doesn't know about the vampire blood?"

"No." Damon told her "Stefan thinks you're dead."

To be continued...


	2. The Road to Destruction

**Part 2- The road to destruction**

Stefan had no idea where he was. He had been travelling aimlessly through the night taking little notice of where he was headed. His heart was broken and he just knew that he needed to get as far as possible away from Mystic Falls. She was dead. Elena was dead, and it was all his fault. If he had just helped her first instead of Matt then she would still be alive. She was dead and it was all his fault.

Throughout the night he had wondered what he would do when the sun came up. Should he take off his ring and give himself over to the light? If he did would he be with her or would he be alone in purgatory as the vampires of the tomb had been after death? He could contemplate neither living without her nor dying without her but he had no other choice. His only choice was to turn off his humanity and leave the pain behind. However, he knew that as soon as he did this there was no going back. With the sun starting to rise in the distance he had to make his choice. She was dead and it was all his fault.

Taking his ring off and placing it in his pocket he held his arms out to the side and gave himself over to the light. Almost immediately his skin began to burn and his body began to smoke. It was an exquisite pain caught between searing agony and the peace of impending death. Just as he was about to burst into flames and no longer having the control to go back a dark figure swooped down on him covering him in a coat and sweeping him off the road. Stefan's last thoughts before the blackness settled in were of Elena.


	3. The decision

**Part 3- The decision**

"I'm going to complete the transition" Elena told Damon much to his relief. "I can't leave Jeremy alone and there is so much I want to do that I haven't done yet." She explained, the realisation that some of those things including having children would never happen for her now.

"But I need you Damon, I can't do this alone." She said looking at him searchingly wondering if he would still be there for her after all that had happened between them in the last year ending with her choosing Stefan over him.

"I'm not going anywhere" Damon told her putting his arms around her "we'll get through this together- I promise." As Elena laid her head on his chest Damon was torn between the fact that she needed him and the fact that she had no idea how hard this was going to be.


	4. Why couldn't you just let me die?

**Part 4- Why couldn't you just let me die?**

Stefan opened his eyes slowly wondering where he was. Then all of a sudden it hit him. He was dead. He has opened his arms to the light without his daylight ring and he had burst into flames. It was over. The torment of his life without Elena was gone.

"Good morning sleepyhead" a familiar voice said from the corner of the room "I was wondering when you were going to wake up."

"Elena" Stefan breathed taking the sight of her in. It had worked, he had died and now they could be together. "I'm so sorry I let you die" he said tears running down his face.

As she began to walk towards the bed Stefan raised himself up anticipating their reunion. Looking into her eyes he immediately realised his mistake. "Katherine" he growled. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I saved your life dummy" Katherine told him a twinkle in her eye. "Don't thank me or anything!"

"Thank you? I should wring you neck" Stefan growled his hand closing around her throat. "Why couldn't you just let me die?"

"And what purpose would your death have served?" Katherine asked him rubbing her neck as he released her.

"I would have been with Elena." He told her.

"Oh yeah I heard about that...sorry." She told him actually sounding sincere for a change. "But you know if you had died you still wouldn't be with her Stefan. She would be in heaven and you would be in purgatory, there is no heaven for people like us."

"At least I would have tried." Stefan told her miserably.

"Oh stop being such a martyr," Katherine told him rolling her eyes. "You've known the girl for 3 years. In the grand scheme of things that's like 10 minutes to people like us. You'll soon forget." She told him hoping that he wouldn't remain so miserable forever. If he did it would totally ruin her plans for him.


	5. Completing the transition

**Part 5- Completing the transition**

"Human or animal?" Damon asked her.

"What?" Elena replied confused.

"To complete the transition." Damon told her repeating "Human or animal?"

"Well which tastes better?" she asked him already knowing his answer.

"Why human of course!" he told her with a twinkle in his eye.

"I never expected to say this" Elena told him hesitantly feeling the craving for blood build inside her and involuntarily licking her lips "but I think I want human. Does that make me a bad person?" she asked him.

"No Elena" Damon said with a smile "it makes you a vampire."

"Next question" Damon continued "living or blood bag?"

"Blood bag!" she squealed; a bit of the old Elena shining through "I may be a vampire but I'm not a monster!" the 'like you' implied at the end of the sentence.

"I anticipated that" Damon told her with a wry smile handing over a blood bag that he had brought with him "thank God I don't have to go out and hunt up a bunny."


End file.
